Book Reviews

To understand the current situation in Iraq — the evolving and complex conflicts there, and the fear and resilience of its Christians — one has to understand its past, which is often ignored or unknown in the West, said a former papal representative to the country.

When Pope Francis first stepped onto the balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square in Rome, Mark Shriver like millions of other people around the world was captivated by this man who humbly bowed his head after asking the people there to pray for him, before he would offer his first blessing to them.

Father Richard John Neuhaus was many things, among them “a theologian, an intellectual, an activist, an ecumenist, a writer,” said the author of a new biography of the late priest who hopes his book will be the definitive volume on his life.

Michael Lotti’s new novel, “St. George and the Dragon,” really is about how Marcellus becomes St. George. It’s that transformation and conversion in a culture that thinks Christian faith weird and perhaps dangerous that matters for all of us.

There were three things Robin Davis said she would never do: move back to Ohio, get married and join any organized religion. God, it seems, has different designs on an otherwise beautifully planned life that this author had been leading as a food critic for a top-notch newspaper in San Francisco.